Worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history

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It is well known by now that this past week the worst mass shooting in a century occurred in Las Vegas on October 1, 2017. This tragic event took place during a country music festival at the Mandalay Bay Hotel on the Las Vegas strip. Without warning the country music festival took an unexpectedly dark turn when gunshots were fired from the window on the casino’s golden facade. Sunday’s shooting sparked outrage in the United States as well as other countries. There were loads of people directly and indirectly affected by this occurrence, and sadly many lives were changed forever.

There were at least 59 people killed in the Las Vegas rampage, and over 500 people injured making this the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history. Authorities say there were approximately 23 guns used with calibers ranging from .223 to .308, some of which had scopes. Investigators eventually found thousands of rounds of ammunition and at least 19 more firearms along with an explosive, and other bomb making chemicals at the shooter’s home in Mesquite, Nevada. The shooter has been identified as 64-year-old Stephen Paddock.

The Route 91 Harvest festival, a three-day country music concert taking place across the street from the Mandalay Bay Hotel resort, was nearly finished when the shooting began at 10 p.m. Sunday night. More than twenty-thousand people had been in attendance at this concert at the time of the massacre. Concert goers as well as authorities were among the dead and injured. Some of the wounded even sustained injuries not from gunfire but from the chaos that ensued in the midst of the shooting. There has been a wide range of injuries seen including gunshot victims, people hurt due to shrapnel, people who were trampled, and people who got hurt jumping fences. Large numbers of police and SWAT officers, plus hotel security, raced to find the shooter, but the shooter took his own life before he could be detained.

This horrendously devastating event is the worst mass shooting in recent memory. Nearly six hundred victims and their loved ones will be forever changed because of this fateful night. Hopefully the citizens of Las Vegas will heal and grow from this experience and get all the help they need and deserve.